The time for a third party is NOW! With the big two disconnected from a majoity of the voters, and 80+ million elligible voters not even participating in the last election, it's time for a new movement to arrise, unite the 98%, take back Washingon, and remake it in the founders image -- government of The People, by The Poeple, and for The People. Party Recon could be that movement. (www.partyrecon.org)

According to Congressional Lobbying Reports linked from this article….

Time-Warner’s 1Q2013 Lobbying Report lists $905,000.00 in total lobbying expenses, and a team of 4 lobbying on trade issues that included TPP, the New Zealand Copyright Act (http://fairdeal.net.nz/) and other matters.

In Q4 of 2013, Twenty-First Century Fox spent a total of $1.52million dollars on all their lobbying including the TPP, TTIP, and Trade Promotion Authority, better known as “fast track” authority.

Disney spent a total of $1.11million in the first quarter of last year on lobbying, spreading their TPP-related lobbying around in the House, the Senate, the U.S. Copyright Office, Patent & Trademark Office (PTO), the Office of Management & Budget (OMB), the Department of Commerce (DOC), and with the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR).

Do we perhaps begin to understand better why it is that the corporate/mainstream media has nothing at all to share with us about the secrecy and the potential pitfalls of current trade negotiations?

The IP Chapter that was leaked arms media companies with a huge axe with which to chop off access and the heads of those they feel are infringing on the intellectual property. Why wouldn't they lobby FOR it?

How can the truth be so obvious yet be denied? Hope and change turned out to be more of the same-old-same-old. Not because Barack Obama was a liar, but because he was bought and paid for, in large part by the military-industrial cabal.

In recent weeks, federal courts in Utah and Oklahoma have ruled that state bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional. These rulings -- in states that have long been regarded as likely to be among the last to legalize same-sex marriage -- do not change the law in the South. However, they do inspire hope as we keep pushing for LGBT equality across a region where anti-LGBT discrimination persists in every area of life -- employment, health care, adoption and marriage.

Some people just take more time to change and adapt. Kudos to those who have, and to those who keep up the fight. To those who still call it the "Northern Act of Agression", please get over it. It was 140 years ago. Can we please move on?

WASHINGTON – Democrats hope a slew of potential ballot initiatives to increase the minimum wage in key states next year will drive up voter turnout and help their party in midterm congressional elections.

Party Recon's insight:

80% of all Americans are in favor of raising the minimum wage. Tell your congressmen and women ot quit politicising the welfare of the lower class and get on with their jobs -- namely, executing the will of The People.

The brouhaha over "keeping the plans you like" and "forcing healthy young men to buy policies with maternity benefits" are simply the latest examples of political red herrings being used by the GOP...

Party Recon's insight:

Here is a very excellent explanation of why insurance companies win big from the passage of the ACA. I am lucky in that my work pays for part of my health insurance. However, my insurance plan is being terminated and premiums for its replacement are higher. Even someone with a limited knowledge of actuarial tables can deduce that one of two things caused my premiums to increase. Either my greedy insurance company is using the ACA as an opportunity to increase profits or the ACA does NOT control healthcare costs as promised time and again by the Obama Administration. Is either one a good result?

Neither is a good result. I would submit to you that the PPACA as I understand it was never going to, a) dictate the premiums you pay for heath insurance nor, b) actually do anything about rising health care costs. IMHO, that's actually those are actually it's greatest failings - too little control over premium costs and no public option to compete against them. "What do we want?" "Single Payer" "When do we want it?" "NOW!"

Time to end the failed experiment with rigged corporate trade and put in place fair trade for the people and planet before profits.

Party Recon's insight:

Torpedo the TPP! If we can't kill it, we at least need to demand transparancy. This so-called free trade agreement is subterfuge and crony capitalism at its finest folks. Take 15 minutes out of your day and Google the TPP. Find out how the President is putting the final coffin in the coffin of the middle class by making it even easier to outsource jobs, while at the same time making an end run around the legislative process by putting into effect the guts of the SOPA and PIPA bills that were soundly defeated in Congress last year.

1) Top story: Is there a doom loop between economic and political inequality?

Freshmen on the House Financial Services Committee can swim in pools of their own campaign money. ”Representative Andy Barr, a Republican from Kentucky with little experience in the intricacies of Wall Street, was among the lucky House freshmen to secure a seat on the powerful Financial Services Committee. Now, half a year into his first term, he has emerged as a telling example of why the panel is sometimes called “the cash committee” — a place, critics say, where there are big incentives for freshmen to do special favors for the industry…One afternoon in April, Mr. Barr hosted credit union lobbyists and executives in his House office just before a committee hearing, promising that he would help protect a federal tax break worth $500 million a year, the executives said. Last month, he introduced legislation to eliminate a new federal rule intended to prevent banks from issuing mortgages to customers who could not afford to repay the debt — a measure pushed by bank lobbyists who had visited his office.” Eric Lipton in The New York Times.

When Olympia J. Snowe told Mitch McConnell in February 2012 that she was going to retire from the Senate, the first words out of the Republican Minority Leader’s mouth were, “Goodness gracious.”

McConnell no doubt instantly calculated that if the moderate Republican Snowe bowed out, her Maine Senate seat likely would fall into Democratic hands – which it did.

McConnell told Snowe that if she ran for another term, she would be at the “peak of her power” and could help build bipartisan support for legislation. That was an interesting argument from one of the most partisan lawmakers who had dedicated his efforts to denying President Obama a second term. But Snowe, a prominent and beloved moderate Republican on Capitol Hill, had made up her mind to leave...

Since leaving the Senate in January, rather than taking it easy, she finished her new autobiography, delivered a series of speeches sounding the alarm about hyper-partisanship in Washington, and working as a senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington think tank focused on achieving principled solutions through rigorous analysis. Snowe is also co-chair of Commission for Political Reform, which is conducting seminars around the country.

Last week, she helped launch the Common Ground Project, a grass roots organization to get ordinary citizens involved in political reform in Washington and across the country. “We want to give people a channel to be a catalyst for change in real time,” she explained in an interview last week. The goal is to use social media and on-line technology inform Americans about what is or isn’t happening in Congress, what can be done to break the political stalemate “and to be a counterweight to the extremes that continue to perpetuate the status quo of polarization and partisanship.”

Bravo Senator for understanding that the biggest political epidemic in our country is lack of participation. In 2012, 81 million eligible voters didn't bother engaging in the process. That is the base that needs to be reached, and Senator Snow's group should help. However, there are so many of these grass-roots groups forming that I don't see any of them ever reaching critical mass. Until someone finds a way to coalesce these smaller groups into a single voting block, nothing will change. Party Recon offers the way. Join us today Senator Snowe at www.partyrecon.org and help end corruption in Washington.

I have always thought highly of this lady. I hope she has good luck with this effort to fix things from the outside. I think a number from both sides have left because they feel things cannnot be fixed from the inside.

Join us at 10 PM EST / 7 PM PST for a critical discussion on the hotest topics of the day (http://tobtr.com/s/4554679). Tonight: The Gun Control debate has reached a Mexican Standoff caused primarily by many people's inability to think rationally on the subject. And when they do, advocates on both sides use vitriolic, divisive language to whip their troops into an emotional frenzy and send them off, ironically, to war. To move things forward, we must first ask the question that has, to date, gone unasked: “What should the outcome of gun control legislation be?” After all, how can we chart and navigate a course through these politically treacherous waters if we don’t even know where we’re going? Only then can we plug the coordinates into our Legislative GPS and begin the journey. Secondly, we must find a way to maintain our collective composure as we engage in civil, transpartisan conversation -- most likely the more difficult task.

The weekend after the Sandy Hook Massacre I appeared on Egberto Willies’ Politics Done Right and pled for the nation to take a timeout. A cooling off period to allow sanity and reason to recover before entering what had always been an emotion-fueled debate -- even without the Newton tragedy. A month later, I blogged about how violent the debate had grown. And now, four months later, in an attempt to push Gun Control back to the top of the legislative pile, the President, his opponents, and their willing assistants in the press are doing their very best to stir up those emotions once again, clouding peoples judgement and making rational conversation virtually impossible. It’s time the Coffee Party fulfills its mission and bring transpartisanship, civilityand reason back to the negotiating table. Let’s agree to explore, rationally, every single possible solution aimed at making ours a safer society.

Click here http://tobtr.com/s/4554679 to listen live starting at 10PM EST / 7PM PST, or call (646) 929-2495 to voice your opinion. And when you do, remember to Press [1] for Democracy.

Data now exists that begins to make the “one dollar one vote” theory somewhat suspect; namely the spending patterns of this past Presidential Election.

Party Recon's insight:

The only thing we have to fear is the indiffernce of good men and women. Will you be led to slaughter, or will you stand up to tyranny? This is the question that will define our generation. What say you?

The only thing we have to fear is the indiffernce of good men and women. Will you be led to slaughter, or will you stand up to tyranny? This is the question that will define our generation. What say you?

The time for a third party is NOW! With the big two disconnected from a majoity of the voters, and 80+ million elligible voters not even participating in the last election, it's time for a new movement to arrise, unite the 98%, take back Washingon, and remake it in the founders image -- government of The People, by The Poeple, and for The People. Party Recon could be that movement. (www.partyrecon.org)

Many of us were introduced to our federal legislative process through School House Rock, which was mixed in with our Saturday morning cartoons. This updated video confronts us with the corrupt process we have today, due in large part to a shadowy quasi-legislative body called ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council).

In both parties, elite donors who once deferred to “super PAC” leaders to determine the best use of their money are now taking a central role in shaping campaigns.

Party Recon's insight:

Both Democratic and Republican party leadership has lost control to their wealthiest donors. When will Americans wake up to the fact that it's NOT about red vs. blue, but us (The People) vs. Green (Big Money)?

And so much more. This is the biggest corporate power grab in history and it must be stopped. Please sign the Coffee Party's petition to demand transparancy and honor the legislative AND judicial process as stated in the constition -- both of which will be compromised if the TPP is put in place.

Should Coffee Party USA take a position demanding transparency of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)? If you think so, please sign this petition and share it with your friends. If we are to take action, we'll need to take it soon!

Not to split hairs, but the CP "petition" is not a petition. It's still a polling question as to whether or not CP should do anything at all. I'm disappointed and becoming very disenchanted by the "paralysis from analysis" that plagues this organization. Talk that doesn't lead to timely decisions and meaningful action is fine, but it's just conversation and shouldn't be mistaken for activism or action.

The latest round of talks over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) have failed to lead to a resolution, with ministers confirming that debate is likely to continue into next year.

Party Recon's insight:

Thank the Lord! This gives us more time to demand transparency and then kill this abomination. But remember, the action here is not to write your congressmen. This is being driven solely by the White House. That is where your anger should be focused. Here's a site set up to help you easily Tweet and post your opinion to Facebook, and it will take you no more than 5 minutes to complete it. Stand up and be heard America! http://www.coffeepartyusa.com/tpp_petition&nbsp;

Time to take a stance against the TPP. Many groups like Public Citizen, Root Strikers, and soom the Coffee Party have action against the TPP. If you don't know about the TPP, it's time to learn about it. If you know about it, it's time to take action against it.

Everyone needs to ReScoop this article, share it on Facebook, tweet a link to it, put in on your Tumblr (I'm not Tumblr-friendly yet so I don't know how), and shout it from the mountain tops!

The Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP as it is most often called is a treaty, so it does not have to pass through the legislative gauntlet that a bill does. It WILL have to be ratified by the House and Senate, but the President plans to use "Fast Track" to ram it through without much debate and without a chance for amendments. Oh, and did I mention its being written and negotiated in total secrecy? Well, except for the 600 mega-corps like Wal-Mart, Chevron, Monsanto, and Citigroup who are helping to write it. This thing is the very height of corruption ladies and gentlemen. It's time that we, the people TTTPP -- Torpedo The TPP!

"The Trans-Pacific Partnership and it’s sister, the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP, known as “TAFTA”), are the Obama administration’s response to the failure of the WTO. These two treaties will aim to not only give multinational corporations all of the deregulation and legal rights they sought through the WTO, but are intended to go even further. With the inclusion of Canada and Mexico, the Obama administration will live up to its promise to renegotiate NAFTA, but not in the way that he alluded to during his 2008 presidential campaign."

"Not only does de-regulated trade harm the environment by allowing corporations to settle where environmental laws are the most lax and making new laws difficult to pass, but it leads to hundreds of thousands of jobs leaving the US. The TPP is often referred to as ‘NAFTA on steroids.’ It is estimated that close to 700,000 jobs were lost from the US due to NAFTA alone. The TPP will make it easier for transnational corporations to re-locate where labor is the cheapest, which drives down wages and working conditions for everyone. Free trade agreements escalate wealth inequality worldwide."

Everyone needs to ReScoop this article and spread the word about the evils of the TPP. Please keep in mind that this is a treaty, so it does not have to pass through the gauntlet of legislation that a bill does. It will have to be ratified by the House and Senate, but the President plans to use "Fast Track" to ram it through without much debate and without a chance for amendments. Oh, and did I mention its being written by 600 big money corporations? This thing is height of corruption ladies and gentlemen. It's time that we, the people TTTPP -- Torpedo The TPP!

The Federal Government has sold its soul to Big Money; a compilation of certain large corporations, special interest groups, and the wealthiest private

Party Recon's insight:

How did "Big Money" effectively redefine and repurpose words to glorify the rich and successful, while simultaneously vilifying the poor and those who believe that government exists, at least in part to help provide a minimum standard of living? And how will taking back control of our words help us take back control of our government?

Eight decades of bipartisan Keynesian spending and Federal Reserve money-printing have left us exhausted and bankrupt.

Party Recon's insight:

33 years of corporate greed has cuased a series of economic downturns for the middle and lower classes while the rich get richer, and those running businesses into the ground are bailed out by the people they've ruined. When are we going to wake up to the fact that we are 98% and thet are 2%, and in a Democratic society that gives us, the victims, the power to take back what is ours; namely our government, our financial well-being, and our children's future.

This is NOT meant to be a partisan slam on the GOP, but rather to ask the question begged: Why are THEY voting in represetnatives who THEY themselves think do NOT govern according to THEIR will just a few months later?

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